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Instant Pot Gumbo is so easy to make! Loaded with andouille sausage, chicken, and shrimp, this gumbo is BURSTING with Creole and Cajun flavors!
Instant Pot Gumbo
Instant Pot Gumbo is the perfect meal for a cold day. Thick and hearty with a kick of Creole spice that warms your insides. This southern comfort food originates in New Orleans, Louisiana. Like jambalaya, it can be made so many different ways. Most gumbo dishes start with a basic roux, peppers, onions, and celery. You can add a protein such as sausage, pork, chicken, or shrimp as well. I’ve tried several different varieties of gumbo over the years, but my favorite includes chicken, sausage, and shrimp. I simply can’t pick a favorite meat to put in; I love them all!
True gumbo is usually thickened with okra and/or gumbo filé powder in addition to the roux. It really depends on your taste. Try a big bowl and see for yourself. You will love this recipe!
Additions and Substitutions for Instant Pot Gumbo
Instant Pot Gumbo can be changed up a million different ways, depending on your tastes and preferences. Follow the recipe as directed below for a spicy flavor and all the meats! But you can experiment with spices and other ingredients to make it exactly how you and your family like it.
- Feel free to omit one or more of the meats. Sausage only, just chicken and shrimp, etc. or go all out and add any seafood such as crab meat, fish, lobster, whatever you like!
- Some may argue that tomatoes do not belong in gumbo, when others love the added flavor of tomatoes. I really think there is no wrong way. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of okra, so it is something I usually leave out. Make it according to your tastes, be creative, and you won’t be disappointed.
- In addition to the natural flavors of the ingredients, you can play with the seasonings by adding black pepper, hot sauce, cayenne pepper, chili pepper, thyme, paprika, liquid smoke, and more garlic.
- You can make this recipe in a pressure cooker too. If your cooker doesn’t have a sauté function, just sauté your veggies and sausage in a separate pan, then add to the pressure cooker and follow the directions as listed below.
How To Get A Dark Roux
You can make this gumbo recipe with a simple roux (we made this recipe with a simple, light roux) or if you prefer your gumbo to have that rich, dark color, you can make a “dark roux”. Keep in mind, that by making a “dark roux” you are adding another 35-40 minutes to your cook time. To make a dark roux, simply cook your roux longer until it gets to be a deep, golden brown color and this takes time. Keep a close eye on it and stir it constantly because you want it to be dark, but not burnt. Follow the rest of the recipe as indicated below.
Avoid The Instant Pot “Burn” Notice
Because you are making the roux first instead of adding a thickener at the end, you may be more likely to get the dreaded “burn” warning on your Instant Pot. If you notice your gumbo is really thick (like gravy) after adding all the rest of the ingredients, you may want to add up to 1 cup more broth. Don’t worry, if you think it is going to be too thin, you can always thicken it again before serving by adding 3 tablespoons of cornstarch to ¼ cup cold water and stirring it into your gumbo after releasing pressure.
Gluten Free Gumbo
To make this gumbo gluten-free, the most obvious choice would be to use a gluten-free flour in the place of regular all-purpose flour in the roux. We use Namaste flour from Costco, or a homemade flour blend when substituting flour. If you want to avoid making a roux, you can always use filé powder and/or okra to thicken instead. The Tony Chachere’s seasoning is gluten-free so you should be good using that as your Creole seasoning in this recipe.
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Instant Pot Gumbo
Video
Equipment
- Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 1 onion diced
- 1 cup celery chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 13.5 ounces Andouille sausage cut into rounds
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/3 cup butter
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 pound chicken cubed
- 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning (or to taste, we used Tony Chachere’s)
- 10 ounces diced tomatoes with green chiles (aka Rotel tomatoes)
- 14 ounces fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt (or to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (or to taste)
- 1 cup okra sliced
- 1 pound shrimp peeled, deveined
- 4 cups cooked rice
Instructions
- Set Instant Pot to "Sauté" function and add olive oil. Add peppers, onion, celery, garlic, and sausage.
- Sauté for 3-5 minutes or until vegetables become soft. Remove all vegetables and sausage. Set aside.
- Immediately add butter to instant pot and stir, scraping up any cooked bits from the bottom of the pot. When butter is melted, add flour.
- Cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly forming a light roux. If you want to make a "dark roux", cook for 30-40 minutes until the roux becomes a dark, golden brown color. Turn cooker off.
- Add chicken broth, cooked vegetables and sausage, chicken, Creole seasoning, diced tomatoes with chiles, fire roasted tomatoes, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Close and lock the lid of the Instant Pot. Turn the steam release handle to “Sealing” position (see notes above about avoiding the "burn" notice).
- Press "Manual" and select “High Pressure." Set time to 20 minutes. When time is up, turn cooker off. Quick release by turning valve to "venting". When pressure is fully released, remove lid and stir in okra. Press "Sauté", and cook uncovered for 5 minutes.
- Add shrimp and cook an additional 5 minutes or until shrimp is cooked through.
- Remove and discard bay leaves. Serve with rice.
I’m anxious to try this recipe! I’ve been looking for a good gumbo recipe and this sounds like just the one. Thanks for sharing.
Ok, I must admit this southern gal was skeptical about making gumbo in my Instant Pot but decided to give it a try. Aside from adding a bit of oil to the butter to help the roux not burn, I followed the recipe to a T and it was delicious. Thanks so much for sharing a fabulous recipe!
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“In a world where you can be anything…
be kind, or at least do no harm.” ♥
Hi Sandy- What a compliment coming from a true Southern girl! Thank you so much!
This was my first time making gumbo, and it was fantastic. I did not have a red pepper, so used two green ones instead and left out celery because I didn’t have any on hand. Otherwise followed everything to a T. I did use canola oil instead of olive, and when making the roux added a bit more oil to the butter/flour mix. I wasn’t sure it got dark enough, but everything tasted delicious. Served over brown rice with a side of cornbread, and I can’t wait to make it again!
I have made this recipe twice now and love it. Although, for some reason, liquid spews out through the sealing cap during venting making a mess. I’m wondering if my sausage has too much fat content because the mess is pretty oily. The second time I skipped the butter and only used olive oil thinking that would help.??? May just do it on the stove top next time.
This is probably because your IP is too full– you may want to reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe (you can add it later if you need to). There should be lines in your IP, including a “Max Fill” line. I can usually get away with filling it a little more than the max-fill line but I have noticed if I fill it too full, I will have the same problem. Another thing you can do to reduce this is to set the pressure for 5-10 minutes less and then let it natural release for 10-20 minutes or so. Hope this helps!
I used this recipe to teach my mom how to use her instant pot I got her for Christmas. She picked the recipe and everyone absolutely loved it. I will be making it again tomorrow for my husband who has been extremely excited.
So glad you and your mom enjoyed this gumbo! Thank you for coming back to leave such a nice comment 🙂
What is file powder?
It is a fine powder mostly used in gumbo or other “stew”-type dishes. It is used as a thickener as well as a flavor enhancer. It gives the gumbo a more earthy taste. Hope this helps!
I would keep my PC just for this recipe alone!! The only changes I make are to use file powder instead of okra, though next time I will probably use both. I also substitute a pound of crab meat for the shrimp. This is an amazing dish and we make it quite often now! Everyone who tries it asks for the recipe! Thank you Thank you
Wow, what a huge compliment, thank you! Great idea to use file powder.. and crab meat- YUM! Thanks for the suggestions!
Have made this twice now…first go round was a bit too spicey for us wimpy non Cajuns ( but we still ate every bit with some sort of neutralizer like bread or crackers LOL) substituted the andouillie sausage with smoked garlic sausage and just garlic diced tomatoes instead of the fire roasted..but still used Tonys liberally..Used all 3 meats..and frozen okra added at the end. Not sure my roux got dark enough….didn’t have real butter just smart balance… But it still came out great!! My grown kids liked it since it is keto friendly without any rice..This one is a keeper…Thanks
So glad that this was a hit for your family! Thanks for sharing how you made it a success!
From south Louisiana.. there are NO tomatoes in gumbo!!!
The roux& water need to be boiled slowly for at least 3 hours.
Now you have an acceptable dish.
Since it’s not your recipe, I find it absurd you have the gall to say “now you have an acceptable dish”. The entire point of the Instant Pot is to reduce cook time drastically. Perhaps try it and don’t be such a jerk on other people’s blogs.
I’m not used to tomatoes in gumbo. And I don’t have any in hand. If I don’t include the two cans of tomatoes should I make any adjustments to recipe? Thanks
You should be able to leave the tomatoes out!
My 3 adult sons all agree that this recipe is “sick”. The whole family loves it and I finally found a gumbo recipe that is so easy to make that I plan to use it regularly. All the boys are great cooks too and now have the recipe to cook for their wives. I made it exactly to the recipe except used the extra-hot Rotel for a bit more punch. Everyone says that a good roux is hard to make but I found it super easy with this method. Oh, I do like it a tiny bit thicker so not having file I used about 2 Tbs of corn starch to thicken it up. Pure preference and not necessary at all. Ingredients were all easily obtainable at the grocery store, including the Tony’s seasoning.
So glad you and your family enjoyed this recipe! We love hearing when families gather together to enjoy good food 🙂 Thanks so much for leaving such a nice comment!
Just made this for dinner and wow!! It’s so good!!
I made several changes based on what I had – used smoked East Texas Hot Link sausage, 1 large chicken breast, 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup flour, and omitted okra and shrimp. Absolutely loved this and was happy to make that roux in only 5 min instead of the hour+ I saw on other recipes!
That sounds delicious! I haven’t tried East Texas Hot Link sausage before but now I feel that I must. Yum!
This was a great recipe with easy to follow instructions. I used turkey sausage and chicken wings. I also added extra Creole spice for more flavor. It was wonderful! Thank you for this recipe, I will use it again!
Hi Terry- You are very very welcome! So glad that you liked it. I have never heard of Gumbo with chicken wings before– did you just put the wings in whole?
I have never eaten gumbo let alone make it myself! This was amazing!! And so easy to make! We doubled the garlic to six cloves, used 4 bay leaves and used 3 tsp of creole seasoning for some added spice. Will definitely make again!!
We are so glad you love this recipe as much as we do!! Thank you so much for the 5-star rating!
Can I use cooked chicken but raw sausage and shrimp? I have some leftover I’d like to get rid of
Yes, absolutely! You can also use rotisserie chicken and just add it when you add the shrimp. Hope this helps!
Has anyone tried canned okra? No fresh okra in MN is the winter! 🙁
I just dont want it to be slimy!
Is the chicken and sausage both raw when added.
Yep!
We made this about 6 weeks ago and it was a huge success. My husband is Cajun and his family tradition is chicken ONLY in the gumbo, no sausage, no shrimp, but this was a winner for sure. And who knew butter and flour would make a roux so quickly? I’ve spent too many hours of my life stirring oil and flour on the stovetop but this recipe was spot on for the flavor. Because we don’t like heat, we swapped out the andouille sausage for a garlic pecan-smoked pork sausage. The only change we’ll make next time is to cook the frozen okra for a shorter period because we like ours a little firm. This recipe made 8 generous servings and freezes well which makes it good for the two of us-cook a little rice, grab the file power and we’re good to go.
I am so glad you guys enjoyed it! Thanks for the 5-star rating!!
What if I have a box of instant rough for gumbo , it’s in a can like Tony’s is
I haven’t heard of that before – let me know how it turns out if you try it!
This was absolutely yummy! East prep…easy cleanup and best of all tasted great! It made way more than I thought it would but that’s ok by me…
Hi Brett- thank you for taking the time to come back and comment! Leftovers of this gumbo are never a bad thing 😉 It re-heats up great!
SO FREAKING GOOD! My new favorite. How much more time would I need to set my instant pot to if I wanted to double this recipe. May be making for a big family dinner with in-laws.
So glad you liked it! You shouldn’t have to change anything if you are doubling the recipe. It should come out the same either way, hope this helps!